Somewhat exciting news! A friend of mine (whose tumblr you can find here), put me on to a contest she came across and told me “DO IT!”

It’s a literary contest with a cash prize of $500.00 as well as publication in a literary magazine. First I gotta submit a really great piece and then if I’m selected again, I gotta do a live reading in Williamsburg (Brooklyn’s hub for the ‘creative soul’) and then get chewed up by live judges who can deem me the winner or not. I’ve never really performed any of my pieces live before, except for the occasional excerpt in my creative writing classes in college.

There were also two novel writing contests that I thought a lot about, as I have said that I wanted to be a published author. The first contest calls for a novel submission, but I would have to send in at least 5,000 words by Jan 23rd and produce a fully finished novel of at least 50,000 words if my piece was selected.  While I could send it about 5,000 words, I can’t finish a novel that quick. As much as an advance of $15,000.00 sounds like a break into the world of authors, I just wouldn’t have the time. The fantasy novel that I have in mind is only at about 17, 600+ words so far, and that’s with some edits and plots lines written in between the text (I have a crappy memory at times).

But the second contest I learned of asks us to create a novel or novella, for a prize of $5,000.00 and a review by a Penguin publishers editor! For this one, I’m up to the challenge. I figure I can shoot for a novella….which is anywhere between 10,000 words to 70,000 words (according to Wikipedia which I think is incorrect on the long scale).

One of my long “short stories” is already at 10,000+ words and it hasn’t really reached its climax yet. So here’s the challenge: to finish a novella of a proposed min of 18,000 words before March 3rd.

Now, I would like to say I am going to start tonight, but that would be untruthful as I am trying to fight a cold with the strength of G_d because of my many soon-to-be run-ins with kids this weekend. So I will shoot for tomorrow night.

So that’s about 50-51 days, with a minimum of 160 words a day.

Sounds easy enough but considering that I have to edit this sucker, do updates, and random additions to my fantasy novel (which MUST be completed before the end of this year)  and brainstorming on my AE story, this may be hard.

Did I mention I have a day-time job too?

Let the games begin! Wish me luck!

w/love

-alja